S/O --> How Has Racism Affected You?

[Fairy]

Spinoff from the swim thread, I noticed alot of personal stories of racism, which inspired me to start this thread. Have you experienced racism? Ageism? You're Too Fat-ism? I'd be interested to hear it.

As a relatively lapsed Jew, I grew up in a very Jewish and Catholic northern suburb of Chicago. We had various sprinklings of every other ethnicity, too, so it's not like we had the one token black guy in our school, or the two Indian people, etc. I mean, it wasn't a heavy population, but there were representations of every flavor. I also grew up with alot of gay folks, so that was very normal stuff for me. I knew racism existed. Over there. Elsewhere. Down there. In that yonder place, not over here. Never here. and truthfully, I cannot recall a single, solitary instance of racism that I witnessed against me or anyone else thru 18 years of childhood. Never touched me.

Then college. And my roommates (I went from only childhood to a frakkin' quad, if you can imagine) and I were out during our first week of college, and someone asked what church we were joining. I said, well I'm Jewish, actually, but I don't really go to services. So, I'll probably not join a synogague. And they looked at me like I had six heads. All of them. Each one. Especially the one who didn't actually believe me. She thought I was playing a joke. She asked me repeatedly to cut it out and I said what the heck are you talking about? She said there are no Jews, so just put a cork in it. She said if you're a Jew prove it. I said, um, well, if I were a guy I guess I could drop trou, but other than that ...? She said, duh, your horns? Where are your horns?

:47:

If any of you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. I was dumbfounded, and she went on that everyone knows that all the Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and that's how they found them all was with their horns and that if I'm really a leftover Jew to show her my horns and prove it. Needless to say, I was apalled. I was actually not 18 yet, I was still 17 for another couple weeks to go. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I was 17 going on 12, very naive, and tried to explain that she was wrong. Boy did she take offense. Over the next two weeks, my roommates tortured me. Threw water on me when I was sleeping, poured baby oil in my facial cleanser (as if I wasn't going to notice all the oil sitting on top of the cleanser), read my diaries, tried to pin things on me that weren't true, and then drew swastikas on my things.

After a long battle with the pro-staff, I got myself transferred to a different dorm. But I had to pull the "my Daddy's a lawyer and we'll sue you if you make me go back to them for one more minute" trick to make it happen after a week of me begging that I was afraid for my safety.

Very rude awakening for the naive girl that thought everyone really did agree with "all we are saying is give peace a chance."

-- Fairy

[Ceepa]

I don't know, Fairy. I think everyone here has probably been touched/affected by racism. In my opinion, rehashing the stories isn't productive. In fact, I believe in a more general sense if we all stopped pointing out the distinctions between "our group" and the next and we worked harder to, as Gandhi said, "be the change you wish to see in the world" maybe the lines between "us" and "them" would blur. So I have plenty of stories of prejudiced thinking and unequal treatment, but who doesn't?

Yeah, who sounds naive now, right? :) :) :) (ETA: I'm talking about me, not you)

[Wife_and_mommy]

I agree with Ceepa. It's hurtful when it happens but focusing on it isn't helpful IMO.

I don't believe there is help for racist/other-ist people so I choose to shake my head at their ignorance and teach my children differently.

[mamicka]

I choose to shake my head at their ignorance and teach my children differently.

:yeahthat:

[egoldber]

I disagree. I think there is power in those stories and that talking about them helps people realize that racism is NOT "dead" and that people still face it every.single.day. In some cases it may be a little more subtle than in the past. Maybe.

Personally, I think it is good for us as a society to hear these things about ourselves.

Fairy, I am so sorry you had to endure that. :(

[Wife_and_mommy]

I disagree. I think there is power in those stories and that talking about them helps people realize that racism is NOT "dead" and that people still face it every.single.day. In some cases it may be a little more subtle than in the past. Maybe.

Personally, I think it is good for us as a society to hear these things about ourselves.


That's just the thing. Who is "ourselves"? All of us? Every single one of us is racist, whether we know it or not? I don't buy it. Maybe we should start a thread about that. IMO, it might be more productive to discuss how our views were changed by our experiences.

[Ceepa]

I disagree. I think there is power in those stories and that talking about them helps people realize that racism is NOT "dead" and that people still face it every.single.day. In some cases it may be a little more subtle than in the past. Maybe.

Personally, I think it is good for us as a society to hear these things about ourselves.

Fairy, I am so sorry you had to endure that. :(

Right. But the sample population on this board is likely on the converted, progressive side of things. We get it: Racism = deplorable. I don't think anyone here thinks racism is "dead." But by all means, if a member of this community wants to share stories, then I support them. :love2:

[egoldber]

But the sample population on this board is likely on the converted, progressive side of things. We get it: Racism = deplorable.

She didn't say she wanted to convert/change anyone or anything, she asked if anyone else had shared an experience similar to hers. People do that every day in practically every post on this board. How is this different?

By "ourselves" I meant the society we live in. So I do mean all of us, but not necessarily any one of us in particular. I do think that each of us has a role in how society as a whole functions. How each one of us acts influences people around us, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in large ways.

[citymama]

Fairy, that is an awful story! I am so sorry you had to face that kind of ugliness. I hope our kids don't have to deal with such ignorance and hurtfulness.

As for not talking about it, I am scratching my head. How does not talking about it make it go away or get any better? I agree that some old wounds are best left that way, but let's not bury our heads in the sand!

[Ceepa]

She didn't say she wanted to convert/change anyone or anything, she asked if anyone else had shared an experience similar to hers. People do that every day in practically every post on this board. How is this different?

By "ourselves" I meant the society we live in. So I do mean all of us, but not necessarily any one of us in particular. I do think that each of us has a role in how society as a whole functions. How each one of us acts influences people around us, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in large ways.

I'm not stopping anyone. I just suggested that it wouldn't be productive for each of us to share how we've been wronged by small minds. But I'm not here to police the productiveness of these threads so feel free to share.

This is not a criticism of Fairy or my discounting her experiences, if that's the concern.

[MelissaTC]

Holy crap Fairy...that is unbelievable!!! I am so sorry you had that experience. :(

[ellies mom]

Even though I'm married to a Black man and have biracial children, racism isn't part of our daily lives but that is probably more to do with geography than anything else.

But I have had to deal with sexual discrimination because most of my jobs before I went back to school were in predominately male fields (90+% male). I've been denied training because I was a woman and therefor denied promotions because I was a woman. I've been told (by other woman) that they didn't think a woman could do the job I was applying for so they weren't comfortable hiring one. I've had co-workers tell me they didn't think I'd make it a year because some other girl had quit. I was told by a few guys that the only reason I was hired over them was because I was a girl even though I was a girl with more education, more work experience and in one case the guy wasn't even employed by the company at the time. Interestingly the one guy who honestly could have made that claim, never did. I also got used to working alone in school because I got tired of being ignored by my lab partners whenever I made suggestions. (Let's check the fuse, Let's check the fuse, let's check the fuse, Hey, what do you know, it was the fuse, who'd have guessed?)

[citymama]

I agree Veronica - I have also faced more gender discrimination than racial. And both kinds are AWFUL to experience.

[Fairy]

Oh gosh. Guys, I didn't mean to open a debate, here, I just didn't want to hijack the Philly Swim thread where there were some very interesting stories that were piquing my interest. And I think it's easy to get lost in one's little bubble of existence where your reality is the only one you see. I am very guilty of such things, myself. And I just wanted to hear other people's stories, that's all. I started with mine. I definitely do not buy into the "everyone's a little bit racist whether they know it or not" thing, and I also recognize that you can be white Christian person and still experience other isms against you. Pigeonhole'ing, for lack of a better term. Like Veronica's example. It hurts no matter what your race or ethnicity. Just wanted to open a discussion. Sorry if I offended.

As for the college experience, thanks guys; but ya know what, it really opened my eyes that there was that reality outside my aforementioned bubble. I'm not saying I'm glad it happened, cuz it sucked. But there's alot worse out there, and I almost never had to see those girls again, and I grew from it. Didn't wallow once I moved. But I'll tell ya, I'll never forget it.

[poppy]

I disagree. I think there is power in those stories and that talking about them helps people realize that racism is NOT "dead" and that people still face it every.single.day. In some cases it may be a little more subtle than in the past. Maybe.

Personally, I think it is good for us as a society to hear these things about ourselves.

Fairy, I am so sorry you had to endure that. :(

I agree.:yeahthat: First of all, I am sorry that happened to you Fairy. That's horrible.
Part of the reason racism will never die is because history repeats itself because people don't get educated. Stories die out and then the same thing happens again in different ways over the years. No one is talking about focusing on racism, just sharing experiences. You can't teach your kids to be different if you don't hear other people's experiences outside your own. Just teaching them not to do something is not enough. They need to be equipped with knowledge in order to empathize with the struggles of others.

I briefly wrote my experiences in the Swim thread b/c a lot of people were shocked this could even happen in 2009. I don't dwell on what happened to me but I also don't forget.

If someone told Steven Spielberg when he made "Schindler's List" that racist things happen to all of us and then gave him a quote from Gandhi, saying it's not productive to rehash all this stuff, millions of people would have missed out on hearing this powerful story. By ignoring it or not listening to what other's have to say, makes things like this happen over and over again.

I hope we never have another Holocaust, or genocide in Rwanda, slavery, Comfort Women during WWII, Rape of Nanking, Mai Lai Massacres during Vietnam, etc. I plan on teaching my kids about everyone's experience and not just relying on my own and telling them that it's merely wrong.

Though I am grateful that I live in the US and nothing I went through tops what happens in other countries. Persecution of all kinds, including religious persecution, to the point of countless murders happen every day. No one talks about how people in Muslim countries (some parts of Africa, Asia and Middle East and elsewhere) murder Christians.

http://www.persecution.com/public/tfc.aspx?clickfrom=c2lkZWJhcg%3d%3d

http://persecutionblog.com/

Or how communist countries like No. Korea are one of the worst human rights violators in the world. How they still have concentration camps and routinely torture and kill people for being Christian, for speaking out politically, or just for anything, like the two journalists...It's frightening. I may regret speaking out on this board but I do believe that every experience is a lesson learned. Knowledge really is power and change only comes about when we are aware of our surroundings and make a conscious effort to not repeat history.

Fairy! I had no clue. Thanks for educating me about your experiences.

[Ceepa]

If someone told Steven Spielberg when he made "Schindler's List" that racist things happen to all of us and then give him a quote from Gandhi, saying it's not productive to rehash all this stuff, millions of people would have missed out on hearing this powerful story. By ignoring it or not listening to what other's have to say, makes things like this happen over and over again.


I was clear that I meant those on.this.board. were not the target audience if there was a message of "let's never forget so we never repeat." This board is packed with educated, experience-rich men and women who have demonstrated a sensitivity and empathy above and beyond that of a random segment of the population. And I don't throw around Gandhi's quote or sentiment lightly or as a panacea for the general shortcomings of mankind. Again, I repeat, I'm not advocating censorship. I am neither ignoring reality nor in any way effectively covering my ears while repeating "La la la. I can't hear you." Please. Feel free to share.

[AnnieW625]

Thanks for starting this post. I have nothing besides the Abercrombie story from the other post. I would've seriously said I was going to sue the minute they said those things to me, and these days with the swastikas you'd have a huge hate crime lawsuit. People are stupid.

And BTW I thought your term Cashew was cute in the school thread!

[poppy]

I was clear that I meant those on.this.board. were not the target audience if there was a message of "let's never forget so we never repeat." This board is packed with educated, experience-rich men and women who have demonstrated a sensitivity and empathy above and beyond that of a random segment of the population. And I don't throw around Gandhi's quote or sentiment lightly or as a panacea for the general shortcomings of mankind. Again, I repeat, I'm not advocating censorship. I am neither ignoring reality nor in any way effectively covering my ears while repeating "La la la. I can't hear you." Please. Feel free to share.

Education should never end. It is an on-going process on this forum or others.
The reason I post here is to learn from the other educated and informed mamas. But we are always in the process of learning more. That's what makes us so smart! :)

[cuca_]

Fairy, I cannot believe that story!! I'm sorry you went through that. I hope your roommates were held accountable for their actions.

I am Hispanic, and have to say that I have not experience anything like your story. However, I have experienced sexual harassment and it amazes me that supposedly smart and educated men (in my case a lawyer nonetheless) can behave in such an idiotic and inappropriate way!

[niccig]

Fairy, that was an awful experience. I'm glad you were able to get out of there and into a better living situation.

I haven't experienced racism or sexism, but I've had family/neighbours talk about all the problems are because of the "foreigners". I'm a foreigner as I wasn't born in the USA. I then say back "you mean me?". And I watch as the person fumbles around and tries to explain that they didn't actually mean me, they meant all the "other foreigners". I know in my area "foreingers" refer to the Armenian population, and as a cacausian I'm accepted. It gets me angry that some of my neighbours have accepted me and I've only lived in the USA for 7 years, but my other neighbour who has lived in the USA 40+ years is not accepted.

[kijip]

Racism has had a profound impact on my family, as a child growing up. White privilege, which is a product of racism, has a profound impact on my immediate family.

While I don't think every person is actively racist, I do think people hold more racial, ethnic, religious, gender and class stereotypes than they tend to think. Also, there is a huge denial, even in the educated circles Ceepa mentioned, of privilege and the benefits afforded to people for not being of various backgrounds. I consider the denial of the existence of white privilege for example to be racist. I consider the denial of institutionalized racism to be racism. This is not a popular opinion IME, but it is my opinion. There are many things in my life that are made easier by being a white woman, period. I see this because I can contrast it with the out of the family childhood experiences of my sibling. It's not fair but it certainly is true. Less true in the place I live to a degree, but still very "there" in many, many places including where I live.

I grew up a white girl in an interracial family. Some of the things that happened (or are still said etc) would make many people very sad. Still other people will argue with me till they are blue in the face, about ready to blow up and launch themselves into outerspace, that what my family experienced either does not happen any longer (like everything that happened 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago is only in the past, LOL) or that it was "not really that bad". Well, I was there and yes it was really that bad, blatant and harmful. It is when I run across such people, who are not usually uneducated or otherwise mean-spirited, that I know racism is still very much a living thing.

I am past such arguments, really and truly. The only person I can change is me so I focus on being the most equitable and fair-minded person, the least racist person, I can be and on teaching my children how to not be racist and to question to norms and privileges they have.

[bubbaray]

Hil, I'm so so sorry. Really. Profoundly sorry.

I don't believe I've experienced racism, per se. I have experienced discrimination based on gender (duh, the legal profession is the worst for that) and religion (interestingly, from a "very brief" ex who was Jewish and made it crystal clear on our first date that I had to convert -- um, dude, its a D.A.T.E., nothing more! -- also from my dad's family who would have nothing to do with me or my mother b/c she wasn't Catholic). I've experienced some very anti-Amercian comments (from friends and family -- I'm the sole American in my family -- as well as while travelling).

But, really, other than the gender discrimination experiences, I can't say I've really experienced much of anything akin to racism.

:grouphug:

[jenny]

I have a more funny story to share about racism to lighten things up a bit here, if you don't mind.

DH is Asian and went to Dubuque, Iowa, for college. He swears he was the only Asian kid in town. He made the most of his experience though and became president of the school and worked to really make some great progress on his college campus. His face ended up being on the college prospectus to show the "diversity" of the school. This is a side note.

Anyway, one day, he and his college buddies went to Subway to get a sandwich and when they walked in, the girls behind the counter started talking about DH in front of his face b/c they thought he didn't know how to speak english. hahaha. Meanwhile, DH's friends were angry and looked at DH to say something, but he gave them the look to not say anything.

Then when they were about to leave, DH said something polite to them in english as they left and he said their mouths dropped open. LOL.

On a more serious note, like I said in my previous post, no matter how old you are, you never forget when someone says something racist to you. It sticks with you forever. And I have to say that the recent incident with the swim club has made me wonder what I will say to DD one day if someone says something mean and nasty to her.

[squimp]

Racism and sexism are alive and well in the US. Sad but true, and for many it is still shocking when you see it. It's getting better all the time, I hope.

[dcmom2b3]

Spinoff from the swim thread, I noticed alot of personal stories of racism, which inspired me to start this thread. Have you experienced racism? Ageism? You're Too Fat-ism? I'd be interested to hear it.

As a relatively lapsed Jew, I grew up in a very Jewish and Catholic northern suburb of Chicago. We had various sprinklings of every other ethnicity, too, so it's not like we had the one token black guy in our school, or the two Indian people, etc. I mean, it wasn't a heavy population, but there were representations of every flavor. I also grew up with alot of gay folks, so that was very normal stuff for me. I knew racism existed. Over there. Elsewhere. Down there. In that yonder place, not over here. Never here. and truthfully, I cannot recall a single, solitary instance of racism that I witnessed against me or anyone else thru 18 years of childhood. Never touched me.

Then college. And my roommates (I went from only childhood to a frakkin' quad, if you can imagine) and I were out during our first week of college, and someone asked what church we were joining. I said, well I'm Jewish, actually, but I don't really go to services. So, I'll probably not join a synogague. And they looked at me like I had six heads. All of them. Each one. Especially the one who didn't actually believe me. She thought I was playing a joke. She asked me repeatedly to cut it out and I said what the heck are you talking about? She said there are no Jews, so just put a cork in it. She said if you're a Jew prove it. I said, um, well, if I were a guy I guess I could drop trou, but other than that ...? She said, duh, your horns? Where are your horns?

:47:

If any of you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. I was dumbfounded, and she went on that everyone knows that all the Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and that's how they found them all was with their horns and that if I'm really a leftover Jew to show her my horns and prove it. Needless to say, I was apalled. I was actually not 18 yet, I was still 17 for another couple weeks to go. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I was 17 going on 12, very naive, and tried to explain that she was wrong. Boy did she take offense. Over the next two weeks, my roommates tortured me. Threw water on me when I was sleeping, poured baby oil in my facial cleanser (as if I wasn't going to notice all the oil sitting on top of the cleanser), read my diaries, tried to pin things on me that weren't true, and then drew swastikas on my things.

After a long battle with the pro-staff, I got myself transferred to a different dorm. But I had to pull the "my Daddy's a lawyer and we'll sue you if you make me go back to them for one more minute" trick to make it happen after a week of me begging that I was afraid for my safety.

Very rude awakening for the naive girl that thought everyone really did agree with "all we are saying is give peace a chance."

-- Fairy

:hug::hug: Your horns, my tail , I sooo get you on this. B/c there were folks at my "haute college des femmes" who were expecting that I, as an African-American, and my AA friends had tails. Yes, tails, as in lucifer/monkey/lower-form-of-mammillian-life tails. I guess they were ignoring our class's median SAT scores (or maybe they just thought monkeys were good at logic games?) and thought we must have wrapped the tails around our waists, tucked them up under our sweat pants, or our miniskirts.

I was stunned. And as you can see, haven't forgotten it. Tails. Horns. Horns, Tails. Sigh.

[JTsMom]

Fairy and dcmom2b3- I am so so sorry you guys went through that. I just don't even know what to say! I've typed my next sentence about 10 times now, and erased it every time, b/c I just can not come up with the appropriate words to show how shocked and disgusted I am for you both. I don't know that there are any words.

As for myself, I've definitely experienced sexism, but I'm betting ever single woman here has. None of my stories are that shocking.

Since the original question was how racism has affected me, I'll share a story that haunts me, even though the racism wasn't targeted at me- I just witnessed it.

I lived in an extremely white, extremely Catholic area as a young child. There was literally 1 African American family in my school. One. The school was really small- 1 class per grade small, so most years, we knew everyone from the year before (although some kids moved in and out of the district of course). In 3rd and 4th grade, one of the African American children was in my class, and I remember witnessing horrible abuse of her by the teachers. It's hard for me to even talk about, so I can't imagine what it must have been like for her to live it. There was such an obvious attitude of hate towards her- like she shouldn't even be there.

The area was not a wealthy one by any stretch of the imagination (steel town), but her family was poorer than most, and that just added to the discrimination against her.

She barely ever spoke. Everything she did say or do seemed to upset the teachers. If she so much as let her desk get messy, they'd paddle her. I remember one teacher dumping her desk out all over the floor and hitting her as she cleaned it up. I can picture it vividly in my head. I don't know that I've ever seen that type of hate again, thank goodness.

I'm in no way saying that witnessing this is anything remotely like experiencing it- I hope nobody thinks that- but 20+ years later, I still feel sick thinking about it, and I wish I could go back in time and rescue this girl.

[smiles33]

This is a fascinating thread. I tend to stay out of discussions of racism because it's such a sensitive topic but this has been handled so well (and on-line, too, where anonymity tends to allow candor).

First, I have to echo Fairy in that I grew up in California in a very multicultural/multiracial urban area. My Caucasian friends weren't just "regular 5th generation Americans" but Russian immigrants, while some of our Latino friends were 3rd or 4th generation Americans. I stayed in CA for college but when I went to DC for a summer internship, I experienced the first of several incidents targeted at me solely because I'm Asian.

Frankly, most were harmless. When 2 waiters collided at the TGI Friday's because they were staring at my 3 Asian girlfriends and me, all chatting away in English and laughing over our dinner (as opposed to "walking around staring at the ground like the other Asians in DC" as they told us later), we laughed.

When an African American woman screamed at us (from across the Metro tracks at the Gallery Place/Chinatown station), "You girls think you're so hot with your straight black hair! You're nothing..." we just ignored her 5-8 minute long tirade. I thought she might be mentally ill and was so embarrassed that the other Metro riders might think we had done something. We hadn't--we were standing at the tracks carrying grocery bags from Chinatown.

I didn't care if someone assumed I couldn't speak English. It was not insulting to me at first, as I realized very few Americans outside of certain urban areas have met Asians so they only know what they see on TV (e.g., heavily accented Asian immigrants). When someone complimented me on my English, I often responded back, "Thank you. I was born in America, like you." Sometimes I even got flippant and replied, "You speak English very well, too." But at the end of the summer, after 15 or more such incidents, when a homeless man approached me and asked if I spoke English before begging for money, I finally did get a little upset and "went off" about how just because I'm Asian doesn't mean I wasn't born here and that I CAN speak English and probably had a larger vocabulary than him. Not my best moment but I had gotten sick of it.

What was scary from the very beginning was how men treated us. White, black, Latino. It didn't matter as men of ALL races targeted us that summer. We didn't laugh when men would say things TO OUR FACE like, "I'd like to f--- an Asian woman. Wonder what it's like." Or a car full of men would slow down as we were walking scream sexist racist things at us. How many pornos are full of Asian women? I honestly don't know, but that summer, I felt physically threatened by men who had some weird sexualized image of Asian women.

So, while they didn't think we have horns or tails, I always thought some of them must wonder if our vaginas are sideways/upside-down/diagonal or something based on the crude remarks flung our way.

You can bet I was relieved to get back to CA, where such incidents have never happened to me here.

On a final note, I do want to share one incident where my friends and I were surprised by our own limited racial concepts. We were on spring break in Hawaii and hailed a taxi to go back to our hotel. My girlfriend said in Chinese, "I hope the taxi driver doesn't take us the long way and try to cheat us." He turned around and replied in Chinese, "Don't worry, I won't cheat you." Our jaws dropped open as this was an older African American man--not a person we would expect to speak Chinese. Apparently, he spent several years in Asia and learned Chinese. Ever since that incident, I have tried to be especially open-minded. It's a lesson that one really needs to view each individual with an open mind and not based on stereotypes.

[MontrealMum]

:grouphug:

I've typed and retyped this in my head a number of times now. No, I don't have any specific stories to share. I, too, grew up in a safe midwestern bubble. I had friends from a variety of different races/ethnicities. Many people where I come from have unpronouncable Dutch or Polish last names. What was my "norm" is not the norm here in Mtl. and that has been difficult for me.

I have experienced some interesting incidents as an immigrant since moving here to Montreal. While I don't usually go off on people's incorrect assumptions (though I am sorely tempted at times), it has really made me look at how I view myself, and others, and how I define myself. Montreal is amazingly diverse, but also very judgmental and compartmentalized ethnically speaking. In fact, the entire province of Quebec had a royal commission investigating racially/ethnically/religiousy motivated incidents last year, and peoples' general feelings towards "others". The results were not very edifying :(

So, thanks for starting this thread, Fairy. We've got a long way to go, and won't begin to get there if we don't communicate about things.

[ThreeofUs]

Fairy, I remembered your story from a while ago, and to this day I am appalled by it. My DH, who grew up in an almost-totally WASP part of Michigan, didn't believe it until he heard some of the stories from around where we live now.

I must say I grew up in the South, in a suburb that wasn't integrated until the early 1970's, and visiting family who had scary connections and ideas about people unlike them. But I also experienced color- and regional-based prejudices when I lived in the South side of Chicago (where I was spat upon for the color of my skin) and in Spain (when ideas about Americans were different and American women in particular were targets). I hated both seeing and being the object of such idiocies. In no place and time are such behaviors acceptable, and I am sad and angry that in such "enlightened" societies as ours, they still exist.